Well, a little update - Ran ToT on my monk instead of my DK last night..went pretty well, Council kinda raped me (died once), compared to my dk because Mar'li was casting her shit on me the whole time, and without alot of self heals/ams like I have on my dk, i was kinda getting destroyed. Other than that it was pretty sweet. We did up to Durumuu last night, going in at Primordius tonight - all in all the Monk seems pretty legit, well timed guards with high veng (like on durumuu) can put up a 350k+ shield on demand, which easily absorbs hard stare, etc. But I definitely think my favorite part was dodging like every damn Snapping Bite on Tortos, its pretty awesome.

Well, a little update - Ran ToT on my monk instead of my DK last night..went pretty well, Council kinda raped me (died once), compared to my dk because Mar'li was casting her shit on me the whole time, and without alot of self heals/ams like I have on my dk, i was kinda getting destroyed. Other than that it was pretty sweet. We did up to Durumuu last night, going in at Primordius tonight - all in all the Monk seems pretty legit, well timed guards with high veng (like on durumuu) can put up a 350k+ shield on demand, which easily absorbs hard stare, etc. But I definitely think my favorite part was dodging like every damn Snapping Bite on Tortos, its pretty awesome.

We REALLY rock tanking Tortos, it's kinda crazy how good we are at it.

Kinda surprised you had problems on Council, I tank Marli and alternate tanking Malak and have no problems. Are you making sure to use Expel Harm when you drop low? Also using Chi wave on CD? As with those my self healing is crazy high on that fight

People thinking DK tank dps sucks are crazy! Take it from a top 10 world parsing Blood DK. When it comes to tanking with a DK and doing high damage - use dps trinkets! I can't tell you how big of a difference it makes. Blood DK survivability is so good you really don't need tanking trinkets.

When your option is a dk who stacks mastery for surv or a monk who picks all dps stats... who you think is gonna be a better dps? obv the monk is better and more dps from the monk means more guards for the raid. prob one of the most underrated aspects of a monk if the free raid healing by us just doing damage.

Monk is better on every single aspect pretty much, plus there's a lot of gimmick mechanics in ToT that heavily favor monks. However, the rotation is a bit John Madden. Playing it properly is seriously taxing on your awareness. DK is almost as good with no skill required whatsoever. And they got their share of useful gimmicks too. Skillcap to efficiency ratio definitely DK.

Monk is better on every single aspect pretty much, plus there's a lot of gimmick mechanics in ToT that heavily favor monks. However, the rotation is a bit John Madden. Playing it properly is seriously taxing on your awareness. DK is almost as good with no skill required whatsoever. And they got their share of useful gimmicks too. Skillcap to efficiency ratio definitely DK.

No skill whatsoever?

You never healed good dk and bad dk? You'll see there's quite as large a difference as in good monk and bad monk.

To my knowledge there's a big difference how you handle blood shield. But I'm just a healer, and I know there's a huge difference in good and bad dk.

Well, this week I've cleared 10/12 on my monk, I brought my dk in on primordius because I kept dying for some reason when he got to like 60% dmg increase, idk if it was because of my lack of experience and poor CD usage or just low heals, but the other tank was dying too, so idk..but anyway, we killed it once we brought my dk in..other than that, I haven't really gotten eaten up by any of the other 10 bosses, including Lei Shen which we basically have down, just couldn't get it 'cause someones internet cut halfway through raid and we had to call it..gonna go back at it this week and see how it goes

Overall, I'm definitely favoring my monk over my DK. I don't think DK's suck, but I DO think they are lacking a few general things, though, which is why I'm enjoying my raiding experience much more on my monk than DK. The mobility and impact a Monk has on a raid is just so much better than a DK's its ridiculous. AH, ZM, Guards everywhere...only class with an AoE taunt..c'mon.

and @ Above, theres a HUGE difference between good and bad blood DKs, but i don't think the skillcap is that giant. I dont think it takes alot of skill, but it takes some, all you really need is a blood shield tracker and just use your brain when you need more shield or need to hold runes for a sec or 2..not all that complicated

I MT for our 25m and did T14 heroics and expect to start the T15 ones next week, played well BrM do great. That said if they aren't towards the top of the skill curve I would take a DK instead, BrM aren't terribly hard but they are the most unforgiving when not played right.

Personally I've teamed with every other tank class this expansion and always fared better on every fight with proper use of our tools. DK's are probably the closest I've seen to matching our DPS but it's still not that close even with equal gear if you are doing it right. Being able to do stuff like take Decapitate point blank and other tricks usually leave me not only above any other tank by a large margin in DPS but also above the rest of the raid DPS on certain (including non-AoE) fights.

FYI my previous main was a Blood DK in Cata so I've raided in heroics as both and have no plans to switch back.

The four elements, like man alone, are weak. But together they form the strong fifth element: Boron.